Gospel Investments

Work for An Eternal ROI

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the familiar “Parable of The Talents.” When we hear the word “talent” we think of a special ability or a natural endowment, but in those days a “talent” was a monetary unit. Jesus’ parable actually connects the two ideas: different servants received different allotments of money from their master, illustrating the fact that we all receive different gifts/abilities from the Lord.

In that parable, Jesus’ point seems to be that each person ought to focus on making the most of his/her unique gifts, abilities, and opportunities, leveraging and investing them for the sake of God’s kingdom.

Here in Luke 19, we come across a less familiar story called “The Parable of The Ten Minas.” On the surface, the parables bear several resemblances to each other:

A master is going away for a while, so he gathers his servants to give them stewardship over some of his money.

Two faithful servants make investments and one idle servant does nothing.

When the master returns, the faithful servants are rewarded and the idle servant is disciplined.

A summary principle is given, stating that those who have will receive even more, but those who have not will lose everything in the end.

In the midst of all these similarities, there’s a key difference between the two parables: In Luke 19, each servant receives exactly the same stewardship over a single (valuable) coin. So this second parable isn’t talking about the unique gifts/abilities God has given you to invest, it’s talking about the stewardship you have in common with every other Christian – namely, the stewardship of the Gospel.

Jesus is telling us his Gospel – the Good News of his life, death, and resurrection – is not meant to be tucked away and privately stored; it’s meant to be shared! It’s designed to be invested and multiplied many times over!

This is what life is about until Jesus returns: Whatever else we do, we are called to faithfully invest in the people and opportunities that have the best chance of giving us a return on the Gospel that Jesus has entrusted to us.